This invention relates to tagging data assets.
Diverse types of digital assets are stored in computer systems. For example, a computer system can store files and database records containing electronic mail messages, digitized photographs, compressed motion video, sound, and text. Such information can be stored as file objects in a hierarchically-arranged directory tree, or as records within a relational database. Some storage systems have limited organization capabilities that are restricted by static relationships between the stored digital asset and its location in the file system directory hierarchy or database.
Improvements in the logical organization, storage, and retrieval of digital assets can be obtained using metadata. Metadata, also referred to as “data about data,” is information that can be used to describe characteristics of a stored asset and that can be altered independently of the asset itself. For example, metadata can be used to describe the author and creation data of a graphic image file without altering the stored graphic image.